Insulin levels

I know someone here can lead me to the correct area for research! I just got home form my 3 month visit. As the Dr. looked over my old charts he sort of laughed that I was just a little different. He said that my insulin level was 10 which is the high side of normal. From what I understood, the insulin level along with being over weight tells the amount of stress on the pancreas.

They way it sounded what that it is odd that my glucose is high, my insulin level is “normal” and I am not over weight. This is the point I got lost. I want to do some research on:1. Am I just odd? 2. Will slight weight loss not make a difference?3. With little stress on my pancreas am I just doing well?4. Am I just not understanding what the Dr. is saying?

You are not odd, you are one of tens of millions of people in the world who have the same problem - Insulin resistance, one of the major symptoms in a lot of cases of type 2.

If your cells are resistant to insulin then they need more to move the glucose in your blood into the cells. If you are insulin resistant and producing a normal amount of insulin then you will have high blood sugar. Even a couple of pounds of weight loss will improve insulin sensitivity in general but the biggest ways to reduce it are exercise and building lean muscle. Try not to think of it as just weight but as body fat. The more you have, potentially the more insulin resistant you will be. The more lean muscle you have the heavier you may be but you will also be more insulin sensitive.

One question though, was the insulin test done fasting? That will make a huge difference in what the result means.

In that case it's not really "normal." When you are fasting your insulin levels should be very, very low. Most "normal" people will have fasting insulin levels that are barely above 0. With insulin resistance your fasting levels will be higher than they should be. I would predict that if you had it done none fasting, maybe an hour or so after eating a meal, you would see a much higher number, maybe as much as 25-30. It would be worth asking your doctor for another one that you do non-fasting.

On a side note, the only lab tests that are routinely done for diabetics that need to be done fasting are fasting blood sugar and cholesterol. Everything else can be done non-fasting and things like c-peptide and insulin should be done non-fasting for the most useful results.

I was in there today for blood work - Fasting … I am guessing he will re-run my insulin number and I will know tomrrow. All in all in all the major thing is that he and I will see each other every 3 months until the diabeties is gone (or he is gone). We do keep a since of humor. I need to continue to eat right and exercise!